I don't know how or why but the word 'seen' gets used a lot in my part of the country and it's like nails on a chalkboard to me.. ex: I seen where Joe went an got him a new truck. Hey, I seen your sister down at the girlie club last weekend...

The -ium is how us Brits say it. I think Bill Bryson researched it and said the original element was named as -"aluminum: and that's how the US says it and spells it. For some reason the brits decided that it sounded better if you add the -ium and made it aluminium. I guess they look at other "um" elements such as "calcium" and decided to keep to that format. potato - potato, tomato - tomato.

The -ium is how us Brits say it. I think Bill Bryson researched it and said the original element was named as -"aluminum: and that's how the US says it and spells it. For some reason the brits decided that it sounded better if you add the -ium and made it aluminium. I guess they look at other "um" elements such as "calcium" and decided to keep to that format. potato - potato, tomato - tomato.

Sir Humphry named it Aluminium after it's discovery in 1812. Wasn't until later when American publications dropped the "ium" in favor of "um."

The -ium is how us Brits say it. I think Bill Bryson researched it and said the original element was named as -"aluminum: and that's how the US says it and spells it. For some reason the brits decided that it sounded better if you add the -ium and made it aluminium. I guess they look at other "um" elements such as "calcium" and decided to keep to that format. potato - potato, tomato - tomato.

Sir Humphry named it Aluminium after it's its discovery in 1812. Wasn't until later when American publications dropped the "ium" in favor of "um."

I live in St. Clair County AL about 35 min. drive from Talladega ('Dega). The drawl & language on the factory floor at my last job would probably make most of ya'll internet folks' ears fall off. "I gotta git down to tha doller stoar 'fore Misty gits off her shift at tha cracker Barrel. We gon git some coors lite & go to tha races" Also, Row Tide ya'll.

puckrock2000:netcentric: "If you're using words like "snuck," "brang," or "irregardless," (no, none of those are real words)... "

Wtf ? That's unpossible.

H'aint ?

Well, according to the Random House Dictionary, "First recorded in writing toward the end of the 19th century in the United States, snuck has become in recent decades a standard variant past tense and past participle of the verb sneak".So if people have been using it that way for over a century, then yes, it's a real word.

If it doesn't work to point out literally was used to mean figuratively from the get go, good luck with snuck.

you know what's funny about ask? in middle english it was aks. thus, the historically accurate pronunciation is aks. you just have some group of people who decided to bastardize the language because they wanted it to sound less germanic.

Thank you. Was about to look it up to post, but now I can just be lazy.

I'm going to try to get through this one without a President Bush joke. All right, so, despite the fact that it's 2008, this is a word with which we're somehow still struggling. Like most of the words on this list, "nuclear" is spelled EXACTLY AS IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE PRONOUNCED and yet, people continue to screw it up worse than the War in Iraq... oh, dammit.

^^^^ THIS

There's an obvious explanation for this.

"nuke" is shorthand for "cook in the microwave". Everyone says "nuke" a dozen times a week. Then they try to transition back to the root word, and can't shove the 'l' into that first syllable.

"nuke" - "ular" is like jocular, ocular, popular, etc.

..... so, in other words, they are lazy, ignorant and illiterate......

Sofa King Smart:the thing that toasts my giblets is the past tense of 'to see'...

I don't know how or why but the word 'seen' gets used a lot in my part of the country and it's like nails on a chalkboard to me.. ex: I seen where Joe went an got him a new truck. Hey, I seen your sister down at the girlie club last weekend...

Before I even checked your profile, I knew you lived in or near Kentucky.

As annoying regional word usage goes, I couldn't agree with you more. I have an incredible aversion to the word "seen". It's the instant mark of a moron, and I grew up around way too many of those people.

GanjSmokr:I want to pronounce forte (strong point) properly ("fort"), but then people don't know what the hell I'm saying so I end up just pronouncing it incorrectly (like the musical term - "fort-ay").

Eh, both the French fort and Italian forte mean the same thing, "strong." It's just the femininization of a French word, which is pretty common. I wouldn't worry about it unless you also pronounce locale as "LOC-al" and morale as "MOR-al."

Sofa King Smart:the thing that toasts my giblets is the past tense of 'to see'...

I don't know how or why but the word 'seen' gets used a lot in my part of the country and it's like nails on a chalkboard to me.. ex: I seen where Joe went an got him a new truck. Hey, I seen your sister down at the girlie club last weekend...

DrPainMD:dramatools: Alabama has plenty of people intelligent enough to pronounce words correctly. They just don't get elected to public office.

No matter where you're from, you speak like those around you. Intelligence, or lack thereof, has nothing to do with it.

That's only partially true. I grew up in Central Kentucky. I do not have a pronounced accent*, because I had access to television in my youth, and thus was exposed to more voices than those in my immediate surroundings. Even from a young age, I knew I didn't want to sound like the locals.

However, there is a difference between accent and pronunciation. While I may have almost no accent, there are clues to my region of upbringing in my speech. For example, when I say something is "ours", it is not a homophone of "hours". Instead, it sounds as though I am speaking of multiples of the letter R. Rs.

*Unless I get a little whiskey in me. Then, a twang is known to appear.

My old linguistics professor, Jay Hoar, had a lecture, "Ain't is a Beautiful Word" and it was one of those classes that folks who had taken classes with him, would come by and hear over and over again. He was a fierce proponent of colloquial and regional dialects, enriching the tongue, and connecting us to our history. In this case, as far back as the 1600s.

Regional dialects are indicative of play with the language, strengthening ties amongst a regional population, and identification with time and place. The scrubbed down versions of broadcast English, both here and across the ocean, are attempts to codify the language away from those tendencies. Even while writing slowed linguistic drift, we now have television and movies to take snapshots of the language, with audio as well as visual cues to emulate social class and standing. English is enormously elastic in its ability to morph and change, with speakers often switching between dialects to fit their social circles.

To be able to switch those dialects, isn't a sign of smartness nor idiocy, but in the ability to suit language and speaking styles to the audience. Colloquialisms aren't formal, but they have their place, and in many cases are exactly the tone that one needs. There are folks who don't switch their speaking styles to suit their audiences, and then there are those who lean upon it heavily to give the impression of being more "folksy" and in the end, one has to realize the content of the speech, as opposed to method of its delivery is more important.

The one thing that regional dialects tend to do, is preserve language. Each is a sort of mixing pot, and often they wind up being natural reserves for forms that have faded from the "formal" dialect, which is itself merely a dialect that has popularity, and is often associated with a particular class or area that power is projected from. Early grammars in the US made ruthless use of this, to demonize many regional dialects, while promoting the rules of their own. This is no less the case in England, and even Malayasia has switched its teaching programs to favor American Standard English, to phase out British Standard English to teach their youth. Language is linked to class, and it is linked to popularity of forms, and the one hard and rigid rule within the language is mutual intelligibility. Dialects can shift and morph to the point where that mutual intelligibility can be blurred, and even lost with some accents and dialects moving away from one another, often because of relative isolation. Even in England, small towns that insular, develop and keep their own dialects strong, to reinforce their own heritage and identity, while giving some measure of deference to the "official" dialect.

There is no "proper" English. Only mutually intelligible English, and given that more folks speak English in Asia right now, than in the US or England combined, it is going to be very interesting century to see how the language shifts and morphs with that impact, especially given the number of non-native speakers, and folks who are coming into second and even third generation speakers, who have never been to a nation where English is the official language. "Proper" English is about politics and projection of power, to regulate societies to conforming to a particular cultural model. We pick up cues from folks' accent and dialect, and we're good at placing that which is different than our own, and ordering it within a framework of social and cultural hierarchy. Which, in fairness, is what humans do within ANY language framework--even sign language.

rugman11:Site is farked for me, but did they get "li-berry?" As a librarian that one always pisses me off, especially when said by other "li-berrians."

And do we have official word on the pronunciation of "important?" When I was living in Alabama, it was often pronounced "im-POR-tin," without the final "t". I, on the other hand, pronounce it "im-POR-nt," pronouncing the final "t" but with a glottal stop in place of the first "t".

Ditto "ingn'int" and "sar'nt". Those grind my gears.

// CSB: at my brother's graduation from Ft Knox, I referred to his DI as "Staff-Sarn't XXXXXXXXX"// mostly because he was a vet of Afghanistan (too some shrapnel there, according to the former PFC), and I didn't want to get thrown through a wall

How about some of you upper Ohio Valley peeps educate me on exactly what the fark kind of accent they have in SE Ohio? I lived in New Lexington, OH for two years, and about 1/3 of the people I met had this nasally, pinched way of delivering vowels: "home" = "haame", "I'm" = "Oim", etc.

I agree many Southerners don't do much to help the perception that we're all uneducated, but these people sounded like they were from another planet!

Well, not really. Up until 1600 "ax" was considered an acceptable word for "ask", and it derives from "acsian" in Old English. But also dating back to Old English is "ascian", which is the root of the modern "ask".

Arguably, "ask" is more historically "accurate" because it's closer to the roots across many closely related languages: Proto-Germanic's "aiskojan", Saxon's "escon", Old High German's "eiscon",. The "ais-" prefix itself ties back to Sanskrit and Armenian.

All that is to say, "aks" was an acceptable historical anomaly, but was never "the" accurate pronunciation of "ask".

puckrock2000:netcentric: "If you're using words like "snuck," "brang," or "irregardless," (no, none of those are real words)... "

Wtf ? That's unpossible.

H'aint ?

Well, according to the Random House Dictionary, "First recorded in writing toward the end of the 19th century in the United States, snuck has become in recent decades a standard variant past tense and past participle of the verb sneak".So if people have been using it that way for over a century, then yes, it's a real word.

Until a year ago I had never even heard the word "sneaked". It's been "snuck" my entire life. "Sneaked" sounds wrong, like "finded".